President George W. Bush underscored his concern in a May 8 statement: "The threat of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons being used against the United States - while not immediate - is very real."
With Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ripping apart obsolete defense doctrines to keep the United States on the cutting edge of world leadership, others, with a much lower profile, are working on a more fundamental issue: homeland security.
After years of dithering under Clinton, say defense specialists, the Bush White House is taking the matter seriously. "Virtually every vital service: water supplies, transportation, energy, banking and finance, telecommunications, public health - all of these rely on computer and fiber-optic lines, the switches and routers that come from them," notes National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice. These are vulnerable. In the short time since his inauguration in January, Bush has instructed government offices to coordinate for homeland security and defense, and assigned Vice President Richard Cheney to head a group to draft a national terrorism-response plan by October 1.
~ June 18, 2001 ~
Dec. 18, 2000: the Electoral College officially elected George W. Bush - America's 43rd President.
Dec. 19, 2000: Clinton went to Kofi Annan and asked that the UN place tougher sanctions on Afghanistan if the Taliban didn't hand over Bin Laden in 30 days. Clinton and Annan both knew how the Taliban and Bin Laden would react to this - Kofi, who didn't delay for 6 months, allowed the vote immediately, pulled the UN workers out of Afghanistan as he announced the new threat to the Taliban: ===========
"Today, the United Nations removed all its remaining relief workers from the country, fearing a backlash from the Taliban, who will be almost completely isolated diplomatically when the resolution takes effect in 30 days, a grace period during which the Taliban could avoid sanctions by meeting the Council's demands." - Tough Sanctions Imposed on Taliban Government Split UN, by Barbara Crossette, New York Times, Dec. 20, 2000.
===========
Dec. 20, 2000: UN announced tougher sanctions on the Taliban - to go into effect in 30 days - just in time for
January 20, 2001: President-elect GW Bush's Inaugeration Day.
"One morning at the nub end of Bill Clinton's presidency, Clinton chief of staff John Podesta walked into a senior staff meeting in the Roosevelt Room waving a copy of USA Today. Holding the paper aloft, Podesta read the headline out loud, "Clinton actions annoy Bush." The article detailed the new rules and Executive Orders the outgoing President was issuing in his final days, actions aimed in equal measure at locking in Clinton's legacy (in areas like environmental protection) and bedeviling his successor. "What's Bush so annoyed about?" Podesta asked with a devilish smile. "He's got four years to try to undo all the stuff we've done." Link. "We laid a few traps,"
Creeps.
From the June 18th article it seems as if Clarke was heading in the wrong direction. (of course hind-sight is 20/20) Whereas the President & Mr. Rumsfeld were looking for major attacks via weapons of all sorts, Clarke was concentrating on the "electronic Pearl Harbor" and said, "for the first time in our history, the armed forces cannot defend us from the foreign threat. They cannot surround the power grid..." He was correct in light of the 2003 Blackout, but NOT in light of Sept. 11, 2001. The terrorists hit the infrastructure temporarily by knocking down the towers. Clarke ignored the obvious.
BTW, how could Clarke forget he said this stuff about security, the whole article seems to be about him. :O
We are winning ~ the bad guys are losing ~ trolls, terrorists, democrats and the mainstream media are sad ~ very sad!
As you can see from my tagline, the above statement has remained with me since January 2001. Along with September 11, 2001, we should never forget.
In the Commission meeting Bob Kerrey briefly touched upon airline safety, but the issue was not discussed. Here's pertinent information about the Clinton/Gore Airline Safety Plan:
Why did Al Gore really drop out? 12-17-02 WorldNet Gore Commission/Airline Safety
After the events of Sept. 11, Al Gore must have hoped no one remembered.
But someone did.
On Sept. 20, 2001, the Boston Globe broke the story of how the so-called Gore Commission had failed in its mission to address airline safety.
White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security
White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security Final Report